1. I need some help: Overview and biographical information

I need some help

I'm trying to gather some information about the computing center directors at the sites that ran MTS. I've got some information, but I need help from others to fill in the gaps, provide details, and double check the facts that I have. A few photos are posted in the images section, but more and better photos are needed.

Northumbrian Universities Multiple Access Computer (NUMAC)

at University of Newcastle upon Tyne (NCL), University of Durham (DUR), and Newcastle Polypart of the Computer LaboratoryComputer Laboratory was split into the University Computing Service and the Department of Computing Science in 1992Ewan S. Page, 1957-1980Harry Whitfield, 1980-1992
Elizabeth Barraclough, Computer Manager for NUMAC 1967, Executive Director Computer Laboratory, [?]Tony Young [?]John Lindlay [?]

University of Alberta Computing Center, later Department of Computing Services (UQV) [correct names?]

Aaron Finerman (1925-1994) In 1994 Aaron Finerman was made an ACM Fellow "In recognition of his extensive and productive participation in the
management of professional society policies and operations. Dr. Finerman
has been actively involved in the Space Program and other technical
activities worldwide in addition to his years of service to such
organizations such as SHARE, AFIPS, and ACM."

In 1981 Aaron Finerman received the ACM Distinguished Servide Award for "his extensive and productive participation in the management of professional
society policies and operations. Dr. Finerman has been actively involved in the Space Program and other
technical activities worldwide in addition to his years of service to such organizations as SHARE,
AFIPS, and ACM."

Aaron Finerrnan, a man of enormous interests and contributions to the
computing field, was born April 1, 1925, and died April 6, 1994.
Although he suffered some severe personal tragedies in his family, he
did not let that deter him from participating in a large range of
activities -- both professional and personal. His major professional
areas of interest and expertise were in computing center management,
professional society publications, education, and professional societies
in general. [From http://ip.com/IPCOM/000129835]

Born on April 1, 1925 in New York City, Aaron Finerman graduated from
Townsend Harris High School in New York City in 1948. He received a
Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree from the City College of New York.
He continued his education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), receiving the S.M. degree in 1951 and the Sc.D. degree in 1956.
While at MIT, he used the Whirlwind computer for his research, his
first exposure to the emerging computer field. Finerman joined Republic
Aviation Corporation in 1956 and headed up the computing and data
processing division. Finerman joined the State University of New York
(SUNY) at Stony Brook in 1961 as professor of engineering and director
of a newly created Computing Center. Finerman also initiated the
academic program in computing at SUNY, resulting in the creation of the
Department of Computer Science in 1970.

In 1971 Finerman took a two-year leave of absence from Stony Brook
and went to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California as manager of
the Office of Computing and Information Systems. Finerman returned to
Stony Brook in 1973 and stayed until 1978, when he joined the University
of Michigan as director of the Computing Center and professor of
computer and communication sciences. Finerman was director of the
Computing Center until 1986. He retired from Michigan in January 1990,
after a one-year sabbatical at Florida Atlantic University. Beginning
in August 1990 Finerman was reappointed to active status as professor
emeritus of electrical engineering and computer science and director
emeritus of the Computing Center for several one-year terms.

Finerman was active professionally throughout his life. He received
the 1981 Distinguished Service Award from the Association for Computing
Machinery and was the ACM representative to the American Federation of
Information Processing Societies in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Finerman was also involved in organizing the Jerusalem Conference on
Information Technology, a conference held in Israel beginning in 1971.
Sponsored by the Israel Information Processing Association, the
conference was devoted to computer technology and developing countries;
one of its goals was to help establish Israel as a leader in information
technology in the Middle East. Finerman was a member of the program
committee for the first conference, chairman of the program committee
for the third conference, held in 1978, and U.S. chairman for the fourth
conference, held in 1984.

Finerman and his first wife, Gloria Blum, were married December 24,
1949. They had two children, Jay and Ann. Gloria died in 1966 and
Finerman was remarried to Carol in 1968. She had two children from an
earlier marriage. Finerman's son Jay died in 1979 and his daughter in
1980. Finerman died in 1994.

Elizabeth Barraclough, see the articles in the Documents and files section upon the occasion of Elizabeth becoming an Honorary Fellow of the University of Newcastle in October 2006.

James Macoun Kennedy (1928-2004)

Dr. James M. Kennedy served on the University of British Columbia Senate from 1969 to 1975 as a Representative of Joint Faculties.

After more than a decade working with Atomic Energy of Canada, Dr. Kennedy joined UBC in January 1966 as the Director of the Computing Centre, a position he held until June 1980. In addition, he became a professor in the Department of Computer Science in 1968. From 1980 to 1984, Dr. Kennedy served in the President's Office as Vice-President of University Services. As well as a valuable member of the UBC community, Dr. Kennedy was a founding member of the Canadian Information Processing Society, He served as an officer of the Canadian Mathematical Association, the Canadian Association of Physicists and the Canadian Applied Mathematics Association; and as a board member of Vancouver Community College and the Management Advisory Council of BC Colleges and Provincial Institutes.

Alvin G. Fowler (1935-1999)

Al Fowler, a long standing member of the UILO, passed away February 1999 after a brief battle with cancer. A popular and innovative administrator, Al served as UBC’s Director of Computing Centre from 1981. Under his practical direction the Computing Center rapidly expanded. In 1985 he was seconded from the Computing Centre to successfully organize and implement a new telecommunications system for UBC. In 1986 he joined the Industry Liaison Office as Manager of Intellectual Properties, where his dynamic vision, practical knowledge, and broad interpersonal skills helped make the UILO one of the best in Canada. Al served as a member of the Canadian Information Processing Society from 1965 and was National President in 1981/82. He was a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of BC, a founding member of the Vancouver Enterprise Forum, and UBC Research Enterprises Inc.’s first President. Al also helped to establish many new UBC spin-off companies in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island, and served on the board of directors in several of these companies. Al was a generous colleague and friend whose life contributed to the moral and social life of the University as well as its intellectual community.

Ewan Page

From The Computer Journal, Volume 21, Number 2 (1978), page 104:

First Vice-Chancellor for computer profession

Ewan Page was a research student in the Statistics Laboratory at Cambridge from 1951-54. This was the period when the EDS AC came into service and Page was so much taken by it that he was seen as much in the Mathematics Laboratory as in the Statistics Laboratory. He had a foretaste of later prosperity when he won a prize of £5000 in a football pool, having filled in the coupon, so it was rumoured, with the aid of Tippet's random sampling numbers. Perhaps he felt that this was unprofessional behaviour for a statistician for he decided to make computing rather than statistics his life's work.

He built up the Computing Laboratory at Newcastle and it was
here that he acquired a taste for university administration. He
sharpened his teeth on the Computer Board and in doing so demonstrated his prowess to such an extent that the University made him a pro-Vice Chancellor. When Dr Henry Miller died suddenly in the summer of 1976 Ewan Page stepped into the breach and served with distinction as acting Vice Chancellor.

He now becomes a Vice Chancellor in his own right, at Reading University, and will be the first Fellow of the British Computer Society to do so. All readers of The Computer Journal will give him their best wishes.

Frank Westervelt served Wayne
state university from 1971-2000 in different capacities. From 1971-1982 he was
the Director of Computing Service Center. From 1982-2000 he served as professor
in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was an Associate
Chair and Undergraduate Officer from 1990-1994 and was the Chair of ECE
department from 1995-2000. During his tenure at Wayne State University he
provided a strong leadership in university’ computing center and in ECE
Department as well.He brought ECE
Department on international map by starting interactive distance learning. He
organized, designed, and developed Electronics Classroom in Rooms 1500 and 2409
Engineering Building. He wrote special software to ease development of
electronic presentations and obtained contract to develop and deliver first ECE
Course (ECE 562) to ECCE Master’s Program student at Ford Motor Company by
Distance Learning methods.

In honor of his services Ford
Motor Company presented him with the 1993 Customer driven Quality Award as
Member of Ford/Wayne State University Interactive Distance Education Program
Team. (This was the only award given to any University person by Ford in 1993.
This team was one of 75 teams, mostly internal to Ford, recognized by NAAO Car
Products Development and Truck Operations).

During his tenure at Wayne State
he advised a number of Ph.D. and Master’s students, published a number of
research papers, developed curriculum for a number of courses, served in a
large number of Ph.D. committees, taught a large number of courses, developed
teaching laboratories, contributed immensely in ABET process, and participated
in several departmental and college committees including Provost’s Task force
for Establishment of the Center for Teaching and Learning, University
Intelligent Classroom Task Force. He was also a member of Michigan Society of
Professional Engineers and Association for Computing Machinery.

In addition, Frank Westervelt has
made contributions to the creation of the MERIT network. In the early 1966,
Michigan’s three largest schools, the University of Michigan, Wayne State
University, and Michigan State University formed the Michigan Inter-university
Committee on Information Systems (MICIS) whose overall purpose was to engage
the universities in the "broad area of information processing and exchange
by computer and other electronic media." Frank Westervelt, then at
University of Michiganserved as a representative of MICIS which ultimately led to MERIT
network. (http://www.merit.edu/about/history/article.php)

He [Fred Gibbons] credits the [UM] College [of Engineering] for giving a passionate
direction to his drive, exposing him to computers in
1967, when they were unknown or a novelty in most
classrooms. Fascinated that he could create
mechanical drawings on a Calcomp plotter, Gibbons
remains grateful that the College allowed him to
create both bachelor’s and master’s degrees around
computer science, when it didn’t even offer a formal
computer major.

“The school was at the forefront of technology
that turned out to be very important to me
personally, and I got early exposure to it from a
couple of great guys–professors Frank Westervelt and
Bernard Galler,” he said.

To explore the questions of packet size and contents, [Larry] Roberts requested
Frank Westervelt of the University of Michigan write a position paper on
the intercomputer communication protocol including “conventions for
character and block transmission, error checking and re transmission,
and computer and user identification."

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Deep Blue encourages the fair use of copyrighted material, and you are free to link to content here without asking for permission. Consult the document (s) and/or contact the copyright holder for additional rights questions and requests.

Deep Blue encourages the fair use of copyrighted material, and you are free to link to content here without asking for permission. Consult the document (s) and/or contact the copyright holder for additional rights questions and requests.

Deep Blue encourages the fair use of copyrighted material, and you are free to link to content here without asking for permission. Consult the document (s) and/or contact the copyright holder for additional rights questions and requests.

October 2010, Chair of The Elder College Board of Management. Dale is a semi-retired Professor of Business, currently teaching online for Athabasca University. Prior to retiring, he was with the University of Alberta, University of Western Ontario, and Victoria University of Wellington. His personal interests include environmental affairs, sailing, and music. He lives in Departure Bay with his wife Penny, a retired lawyer. Dale is co-chair of the Program Committee.

Together with two young computer scientists, C. Hadlai (“Tex”) Hull and
Dale Bent, [Norman H.] Nie invented a computer software package called the
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)[1].